Sedation Dentistry In Mississippi
Is anxiety keeping you from getting much-needed dental care? Sedation dentistry may be the right fit for you. You do not have to sacrifice your oral health due to a fear of the dentist. Dr. Todd Fincher DDS, and his teams in Greenwood, MS, Columbus, MS, Oxford, MS and Ridgeland, MS and all of Mississippi use a monitoring system that exceeds the national standard for safety. They offer non-narcotic sedation dentistry to help you relax.
Experience Comfort and Relaxation
IN TOTAL SAFETY
Dr. Todd Fincher and his staff of dental professionals, serving Columbus, MS, Greenwood, MS, Greenville, MS, Oxford, MS and Ridgeland, MS believe that everyone should have access to high-quality oral health care in a safe, controlled setting. Whether you are looking to replace missing teeth with dental implants, All-on X Dental Implants need significant cosmetic dentistry work, or are due for a routine cleaning, sedation dentistry makes anxiety-free oral care possible for everyone.
For those with severe dental anxiety, a complex case, or mobility control issues, we offer a range of safe sedation dentistry options. Together with his nurse anesthesiologist, Dr. Fincher is proud to offer narcotic-free sedation using a medication called Propofol. Compared to traditional anesthesia techniques, Propofol has a rapid onset, quick recovery, and a reduced risk of negative sedative side effects. For patients with anxiety who want to achieve milder levels of conscious sedation, we also offer nitrous oxide.
Do not let a fear of the dentist get in the way or receiving the dental care you need. Call Dr. Fincher and his team at (662) 453-1708 or contact us online to set up an appointment.
Dr. Todd Fincher
PK anesthesia Keeps you in
the safest and most comfortable environment
Dr. Todd Fincher explains his unique approach to sedation dentistry where he uses PK anesthesia for the most comfortable outcome for his patients.
I’d like to talk to you a little bit about the sedation opportunities we have in our practice here. A lot of dentistry can be done under local anesthetic; it has been done under local anesthetic for decades, but today there are much simpler ways to have the dentistry done that is very complex. We employ a type of sedation called PK anesthesia that we borrowed from Dr. Barry Friedberg on the West Coast. He allowed us to modify this for dentistry, and we are the only dental office in the United States, that I’m aware of, that uses this type of anesthesia with these certain types of machines to monitor you. This process ensures that we can keep the patient in the safest, most comfortable environment to have whatever type of dental work done, performed here in our office. I have a certified registered nurse anesthetist, David Franklin, who works beside me. We’ve worked together for 30 years; he’s a friend and patient of mine. He’s excellent. He takes care of the anesthesia. I’ll go over the machines that we use to deliver this anesthesia. I provide the dentistry. We have two auxiliaries that are usually in there with us at all times, so at all times, there are at least three people in the room monitoring the patient. We use some of the most sophisticated monitoring systems that are on the market. What this system hinges on is a machine called a bispectral index machine, or a BIS monitor. This BIS monitor takes your brain waves, called an EEG, and puts these through a number process and gives us a number that shows us your level of sedation. It basically runs it through an algorithm. Through this algorithm, we can see exactly where you are in your sedation at any point. We know exactly where you are. This allows us to provide the safest, most comfortable anesthesia that can be delivered to someone. We know exactly where the patient is at all times; they don’t get too little, they don’t get too much, and it’s just a very, very safe mode to be sedated with. We also monitor your end-tidal CO2; we monitor your regular vitals: heart, blood pressure, respiration, temperature, all of that. Through this process, in the end, we feel like we’ve given the patient the safest place to have dentistry done, and we’ve provided them the highest level of dentistry that they’re capable of receiving.
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Supervised Sedation
For Children
For young patients over the age of two who have significant oral health issues, Dr. Fincher works with a local hospital to provide safe sedation dentistry in a controlled environment.
What Makes Our Sedation Services Unique
Many traditional forms of sedation often leave patients feeling ill for hours after their general, restorative, or cosmetic dentistry procedure. To avoid these sedative side effects while still providing patients with a way to remain comfortable during surgery (such as replacing missing teeth with dental implants, we use Propofol.
Initially developed by a plastic surgeon for clinical use, Propofol offers:
- Very rapid onset of relaxation
- Effects that subside quickly after treatment
- Reduced risk of negative side effects
With Propofol, our dentist strives to virtually eliminate the risk of unpleasant side effects while achieving deep levels of sedation.
Like traditional IV sedation, propofol is administered intravenously during treatment.
What to Expect
DURING YOUR PROCEDURE
While some dentists administer sedation medication and perform the necessary procedure themselves, we always use two dedicated dental professionals to ensure that you receive the best treatment possible. Before receiving dental treatment, our dentist will review your medical history and conduct a health evaluation to determine if Propofol is appropriate to your needs. If so, on the day of treatment, our nurse anesthesiologist will administer Propofol via a needle at the back of the hand.
Throughout your appointment at our dentistry, our team will carefully monitor your vitals using state-of-the-art equipment. Once the needle administering Propofol is removed, you can expect the effects to wear off within minutes.
To undergo dental sedation, you must...
Not be Pregnant
Have NO history of bad reactions to intended sedative
Be in good health
Fully Equipped
And Fully Certified
To ensure your safety, our dental staff uses a number of tools while administering sedation, including:
- Criticare Monitor: This chairside monitor keeps track of your vitals.
- Infusion Pump: This device makes it virtually impossible to over-sedate a patient by delivering a predetermined amount of Propofol in a controlled manner.
- BIS™ Monitor: This monitor measures brain activity so the doctors can sedate you according to your neurological function as well as your vitals.
Combined, these state-of-the-art tools precisely monitor your sedation during the procedure, reducing the risk of complications.
Both of our office locations are also equipped with nitrous oxide if you prefer a milder form of conscious sedation. Also known as laughing gas, nitrous oxide is easily controlled by our dentist and the effects wear off quickly.
Our sedation techniques make it possible for us to help children and adults get the treatment they need with minimal discomfort and life-changing results.
Sedation Dentistry
For Children
Often, children and special needs patients present unique challenges during treatment for complex cases. Dr. Todd Fincher works with Greenwood Leflore Hospital to provide sedation dental services for children and special needs patients who can benefit it. Because the environment is highly regulated, sedation dentistry in a hospital provides an added level of safety.
Our Team Can Safely Perform Sedation Dentistry
WITH MINIMAL SIDE EFFECTS
There are two types of sedation we use in our dental practice: one is an in-office sedation, and one is in-hospital sedation. We treat a lot of children who are too young to be treated in a conventional dental setting. They may have rampant decay, they may have decay in all of their teeth or a good number of teeth, or they may have multiple abscesses. These children have got to be taken to the hospital; that is the safest way to treat pediatric cases, in my opinion. The other mode of sedation is in the office. That’s usually an adult type of sedation, where we bring in a certified registered nurse anesthetist, in this case, Bill Reed, who is part of my staff. Bill will sedate the patient for me. Legally, I am able to sedate the patient, but I choose not to because my belief is that if I have Bill sedating the patient, the patient is going to get the best sedation possible with the machines that we have to monitor their sedation, and they’re going to get my 100% full attention. So, in that view, it is a win-win for the patient. The patient gets the best anesthesia from Bill, and they get the best dentistry from me. Hopefully, it comes together; it’s a great patient experience, and we meet their needs. Traditionally, at the hospital, they monitor everything from the neck down—all your vital organs from that—but forget to monitor the most important organ of all, and that’s the brain. That’s what separates this technique from the techniques used in the hospital and most offices. Rather than over-sedating or under-sedating, we give you the exact amount of anesthesia that you will need for the procedure that we do here. A few minutes before the procedure is complete, Dr. Fincher will say, “Bill, we’re almost finished.” At that point, we’ll cut the anesthesia off, the infusion off, and the patient is awake within 15 minutes. You can continue your usual activities at home later on that day, and you’re not hungover for the weekend or the next night. You’re fully awake within 15 minutes. We have the best equipment, the latest equipment. We have a crash cart. We’ve been approved by the state, and our main concern in putting this together was the safety of the patient. The technique that Bill administers is just the finest technique that we’ve come across. My patients love it, and I think Bill said we’ve done over 150 cases like this without a single instance of nausea or vomiting following the case.
